Pro Tools 2021.6 release is [largely] the one we’ve been waiting for!
Avid dropped Pro Tools 2021.6 today and it includes some key updates that we’ve been waiting for.
M1 Support
Let’s get this out of the way quickly – M1 support was ‘mentioned’ but it’s not exactly what we want to hear. The release notes say that 2021.6 is compatible with M1 chips via Rosetta 2.
It’s not native support for the M1 chip directly, but at least Avid have confirmed that they’ll now support it via Rosetta 2.
If you saw our stress test of the M1 running a larger than usual session, you’ll know that the M1 runs Pro Tools very smoothly through Rosetta.
Increased Voices and Audio Tracks
Standard Pro Tools received a maximum track count boost, doubled up to 256 mono OR stereo audio tracks at all sample rates, up from 128.
Ultimate now supports 2048 voices for all sample rates without the need for Voice Packs – which are no longer a ‘thing’.
Increased IO
Pro Tools (without HD hardware) now supports a maximum of 64 channels of IO at all samples rates.
ADC for Sidechains
Delay compensation is now applied to side chains on all Pro Tools systems.
Theme and UI Customization
Dark and Light mode can now be switched without needing to restart the app and, certainly my favourite feature, we can now customise brightness and colours on a selection of UI elements.
Andy shows off his 5 favourite features below.
Track width updating
We can now alter the track widths on the fly to any track width available on our system such as Mono to 7.1 (Ultimate) or Mono to Stereo (All versions). All routing and plugins will be preserved.
In addition, we can now drag plugins between track widths.
Playback Engine Updates for Intel Macs
We can now limit the number of real time threads and have control over Turbo Boost. This is specifically for Intel chips.
Furthermore….
The update includes the Hybrid Engine to allow more cooperation between the CPU and DSP power.
There are also a number of Quicktime improvements and a plethora of bug fixed.
For more information, you can find out here.
And you’ll be able to catch our live stream, where we’ll be talking about 2021.6 at YouTube.com/c/protoolsanswers
